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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Tuesday’s Tip: Using Immigration Records in Location Studies

Putting the D’Arco Family Together

One of the pleasures of researching my husband’s family lines is that it leads me to new geographic areas, new patterns of movement and family association, and, what is most interesting, new research approaches.

My Southern American, mostly rural agrarian ancestors followed certain migration patterns. I track their movements to learn about them, but their locations also help me to identify them and distinguish them from others with the same name. They didn’t have much by way of addresses, but did have rural routes, descriptions of landmarks, metes and bounds and, on a few occasions, townships, range, and sections.

No so with my husband’s ancestors, who were mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century immigrants to New York and New Jersey - they had real addresses in this country: on the censuses (which I can even read if I’m lucky) and in directories. When I first started I didn’t have much to go on, because their European names confounded a lot of the census takers and because I was unaware of how useful city directories could be.

I learned how important it was to “follow the address” from attending several presentations given by Warren Bittner at the 2011 Spring Conference of the Fairfax Genealogical Society. Sometimes the address may be the only constant for an ancestor with a name that seems to morph from year to year. And recently a researcher on my husband’s Fichtelmann line sent me a spreadsheet with year-by-year addresses for his Fichtelmann great-great-grandparents from 1859 through 1900 - be still, my heart! (Migration geeks will probably understand my excitement.)

I realized that I could do the same for my husband’s Koehl great-great-grandparents, because I have addresses from the 1870 through 1900 federal censuses, two New York state censuses, several New York City directories, and even Julius Koehl’s estate papers.

But right now I am using the address/location connection to put together my husband’s D’Arco family in Newark, New Jersey. Right now I only have three censuses and one city directory.

But I have more address information. I have immigration records.

Immigration records have plenty of juicy tidbits of information which may include: last permanent residence, place of birth, final destination, name of nearest relative or friend in country whence alien came, name or relative or friend passenger is going to join with full address, and so on. Again, if you can read the handwriting, these things are goldmines of names, dates, places.

I started with three census records for the Nicola D’Arco-Vincenza “Jenni” Rossi family:

I know of no connection to the Anthony D’Arco who appears at the top of this list, and he did not live at the same address as the Nicola D’Arco family (Florence, Geraldine, and Margaret were daughters), but he’s filed away just in case and I will be consulting a Newark street map.

Next comes the Record of detained alien passengers from the S. S. Neustria, arrived from Naples 27 May 1902: Nicola D’Aro arrives to go to his brother Giov[anni], who lives at 31 Garside St., Newark, NJ.

Here is an image provided by Google Maps of houses in the vicinity of 282 Garside Street (which searches reveal is in the neighborhood of Newark known as Little Italy):

The next record I found was the List or Manifest of Alien Immigrants for the United States Immigration Officer at Port of Arrival for the Ship Hamburg, which sailed from Naples on October 19, 1907 and arrived in the port of New York on November 1, 1907. This record contains the names of Vincenza Rossi and her mother [or sister, if you go by the 1910 census above] Rosa. Among the many interesting items of information this document includes are their Last Permanent Residence - Cava [de] Tirreni, their place of birth - Vietri sul Mare (which is near Cava de Tirreni), and their destination: brother-in-law (or, for Vincenza, uncle) Vincenzo D’Arco, who lives at 225 Freemont Av., Jersey, NJ. According to the 1910 census, Nicola and Vincenza did not marry until around 1909, so this indicates that Vincenzo may be the husband of a sister of Rosa (and Vincenza as well if she is actually Rosa’s sister).

My mother-in-law had always heard that the D'Arco family was from Naples. This illustrates what was apparently a common phenomenon when immigrant ancestors referred to the old country - they often chose a larger, more well-known city: Cava de Tirreni > Salerno > Naples. Here are maps showing where Cava de Tirreni is located in relation to Vietri sul Mare and when Vietri sul Mare is located in relation to Salerno:

So next I looked Vincenzo D’Arco up in the immigration records. Two records appear to be good matches for Vincenzo:

List or Manifest of Alien Immigrants for the Commission of Immigration

This entry appears to be crossed out - perhaps he did not make the trip?

There is another entry for a Vincenzo D’Arco traveling on the Germania on 21 Mar 1907, age 46 [or 42], from “Cava de Ter.” going to his brother Saverio, 342 [Clinton St.?], Newark, NJ.

Here the age does not match, but he appears to be traveling from the same place in Italy to the same city in New Jersey - but the street address does not match and Saverio is a new name. Could be the same guy, an older relative, or someone completely different? This is another item to file this away. This same Vincenzo appears on a March 5 manifest but is crossed out - this manifests indicates that his hair is gray, so I’m guessing the 42/46 age is correct. And the point of origin of Cava de’ Tirreni is clear. I’m guessing he was a relative.

To sum up, Vincenzo D’Arco is listed as a relative by marriage for Rosa and Vincenza Rossi, Nicola and Vincenzo both claim a Giovanni D’Arco on Garside St. as a brother, and Vincenzo and the Rossis all come from Cava de Tirreni - so I believe I have at least three D’Arco brothers/relatives, two of whom may be married to Rossi sisters/relatives.

The other address that recurs is 159 James Street. This house is well remembered by my mother-in-law; according to her, the D’Arco family lived in a beautiful turreted house in New Jersey before she and her parents moved to Brooklyn. It was a duplex with 5-room and 3-room units on each side.

This is the picture I get when I input 159 James Street Newark into Google Maps:

This is obviously not old enough to be the house my mother-in-law remembers, but just in case I’ll be checking with my mother-in-law to see whether she remembers anything like this on James Street.

My plan for “putting together the D’Arco and Rossi families” is to use these posited relationships, the addresses (with some map work), and the place of origin in Italy - Cava de Tirreni - to identify members of these families, which I hope to confirm through study of directories, vital records, and other records.

Entry for Rosa and Vincenza Rossi, List or Manifest of Alien Immigrants for the United States Immigration Officer at Port of Arrival for the Ship Hamburg, sailed from Naples on October 19, 1907 and arrived in the port of New York on November 1, 1907, page 219, lines 2 and 3; National Archives microfilm publication T715. Accessed via Ancestry.com.

Entry for Vincenzo D’Arco, List or Manifest of Alien Immigrants for the Commission of Immigration for the SS Palatia, sailing from Naples, arrival date 6 July 1900 in port of New York, page 27, line 12; National Archives microfilm publication T715, accessed via Ancestry.com.

Entry for Vincenzo D’Arco, List or Manifest of Alien Immigrants for the Commission of Immigration for the SS Spartan Prince, sailing from Naples 21 May 1903, arrived in the port of New York 5 June 1903, page 102, line 7; National Archives microfilm publication T715, accessed via Ancestry.com.

Entry for Vincenzo D’Arco, List or Manifest of Alien Immigrants for the Immigration Officer at the Port of Arrival for the SS Germania, sailing from Naples 6 March 1907, arrived in the port of New York 21 March 1907, page 24, line 23; National Archives microfilm publication T715, accessed via Ancestry.com.

Entry for Vincenzo D’Arco, List or Manifest of Alien Immigrants for the Immigration Officer at Port of Arrival for the SS Madonna, sailing from Naples 24 February 1907, arrived in the port of New York 6 March 1907, page 32, line 20; National Archives microfilm publication T715, accessed via Ancestry.com.

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About Me

After spending my formative years paying no heed to all the family stories, I got hooked on genealogy later in life and am now trying to catch up. My husband and I had long ago developed an interest in graveyards and have enjoyed visiting them while on vacation. I have started two Graveyard Rabbit blogs as a way, in addition to my participation in Findagrave, to help make information to other people who are researching their family history.
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